Montblanc () is the capital of the

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

comarca

Conca de Barberà Conca de Barberà () is a comarca (county) in the province of Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain. Its total area is . At its creation in 1936, it contained 23 municipalities, but in 1990, several of these were amalgamated; Rojals was combined with Mon ...

, in the Spanish

province of Tarragona Tarragona (, ) is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is bordered by the provinces of Castellón, Teruel, Zaragoza, Lérida and Barcelona and by the Mediterranean Sea. The province's p ...

. The Prades Mountains are located in the vicinity of this town. The municipality comprises the settlements of Montblanc (2013 population 7,027), La Guàrdia dels Prats (200), Lilla (88), Prenafeta (61), Rojals (26), and El Pinetell (7).

History

The area around Montblanc has been inhabited for thousands of years. Evidence of

cave dwellings A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

have been found dating back to

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

times. From the 4th to the 1st century BC Iberian villages existed on Santa Bàrbara hill. These villages coexisted with the early Roman settlers. Evidence of Roman artifacts have been found which date from between the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD. After the invasion by the

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...

in 711 AD, much of the area became dominated by a patchwork of

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

fiefdoms. The Islamic invasion initiated a long period of very successful agricultural and commercial development. This was responsible for the birth of many towns and villages in the region which still retain their Islamic names. The 10th and 11th centuries seem to have been a period of relatively peaceful coexistence in which

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

and

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

lived in the region of Montblanc. This productive period continued until an allegiance of forces, strongly supported by the Roman Catholic Church, initiated an era of expulsions, which forced Muslims and Jews to leave the Iberian peninsula.

Maties Palau Ferré Maties Palau Ferré (1921–2000) was a painter from Montblanc, Tarragona, Montblanc, Catalonia, Spain. He made Cubism, cubist oil paintings, India ink drawings, as well as Ceramic art, ceramics and a few sculptures. He is renowned as the paint ...

(1921-2000), painter and sculptor, disciple of

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, was born and died in Montblanc.

Main sights

*Convent of ''Sant Francesc'', established around 1238. The church is in Romanesque-Gothic style. *Gothic church of Santa Maria (14th century) *Church of ''Sant Miquel''

Twin towns

* Montblanc, France

References

External links

Official website

Government data pages
{{Authority control Municipalities in Conca de Barberà